Wednesday Round-Up

After 2 dull games involving English teams on Tuesday we had slightly better entertainment on Wednesday.

Liverpool made hard work of little known Hungarian side Debrecen, with just a single goal from Dirk Kuyt the difference. Again Gerrard played deeper allowing Benayoun & Kuyt to get forward to support attacks. I must admit, Torres looked slightly off the pace again & that’s a few games in a row now…expect him to bag a brace vs. West Ham.

Despite Gerrard playing this withdrawn role it doesn’t put me off him for Week 5. He was still involved in everything & tends to get more chances to shoot from around 20-30 yards out when playing in the centre of midfield. His set piece delivery continues to provide danger to any opposition Liverpool face, so despite his price I expect him to be in my team when the 12pm deadline passes this Saturday.

Benayoun was impressive again but you wonder whether Rafa may rotate his team at West Ham after many of last night’s side played their 2nd 90 minutes in 4 days & looked tired by the end. As we know, with Rafa, you never know.

Arsenal were involved in the pick of this week’s Champions League games as they fought back from a catastrophic start to win 3-2 in Belgium. Defensively they seem all over the place again this season, shipping 8 goals in their last 3 games, and they found themselves 2-0 down after just 4 minutes last night. However, they were able to take advantage of Liege’s negative tactics after this & eventually earned a deserved victory.

Tomas Rosicky was the best player on the pitch for Arsenal & I am now fairly confident he could start vs Wigan after he was subbed in the 70th minute. I also expect Van Persie to be back after Eduardo & Bendtner both played close to 90 minutes. Eduardo was subbed with a few minutes remaining & looked absolutely exhausted, possibly carrying a knock or suffering from cramp, so I’d be shocked to see him start on Saturday. Vermaelen continues to looks dangerous from offensive set pieces although his goal had a touch of fortune with Song clearly handballing (and possibly standing 5 yards offside if Eduardo did get the flick on) before playing the ball across the goal.

We have Fulham & Everton in Europa Cup action tonight, the last games before the Week 5 fixtures so the last real chance of any last minute injuries. Some reports this morning suggest the out-of-contract Lucas Neill is having a medical with a view to a move to Everton on a free transfer. I really dislike Neill but he is a very good defender & I must admit an Everton back-line of Neill, Distin, Jagielka, Baines when everyone is fit is one of the best in the league. Where this leaves Heitinga I’m not sure but I guess he could still be in line to replace Neville in midfield.

As promised I’ll try and go in to more detail on Player Picks later this evening but I imagine the majority of readers now have reasonably settled sides with maybe just 1 or 2 big choices left to make. Any injury news I hear will be posted up this afternoon, with Predicted Starting 11’s & the Week 6 Preview coming tomorrow.

What dilemmas have you got at the moment? Mine involves Heitinga, Sonko, Rosicky & Hunt - it's probably going to be a last minute decision again.

Cheers,
AM